Keywords – Citizenship education Museology Sustainability

Overview of the Research Group

The “Education and Societal Challenges” Research Group brings together researchers who explore the intersection between education and the societal challenges of our times and the future from a humanist perspective, strongly committed to de-centering a Western perspective. Its main societal challenges are issues related to the climate crisis and an idea of community beyond humans, the construction of plural identities and memories, difficult legacies, citizenship, democracy and social justice.

The past and current approaches fall under 4 main thematic axes:

A. Historical education
This thematic axis focuses on issues related to school culture, history teaching and curriculum studies. It integrates different fields of research from a transversal perspective of education, the teaching-learning process and training for citizenship.

B. Geographical education
Issues related to pedagogical and geographical thinking are investigated from different spatial perspectives, articulating their physical, socio-economic, cultural, geopolitical, environmental and technological aspects with various geographical theories.

C. Heritage and museum education, interpretation and mediation
Understanding cultural heritage as an intrinsic part of the individual, community and society relationship, this thematic axis investigates educational policies and practices in heritage and museum contexts, paying special attention to issues related to difficult heritage, representation and voice, identity, social inclusion, sustainability and the mobilization of communities in a participatory/collaborative framework.

D. History of education
In this axis, the focus is on research into the History of Education as a specific scientific field of educational systems, namely in the analysis of the structures and processes through which formal and informal education is thought of as a historical and social phenomenon, integrating the study of citizenship, social inclusion, democracy, the construction of identities, heritage and painful pasts.

The work of this Research Group is necessarily interdisciplinary, inclusive and plural, and is based on leveraging synergies from different areas of knowledge, such as history, education, museology, geography, anthropology, sociology, information science, performing arts and the audiovisual sector. We are driven by challenges and aim to develop research with a real impact. This is supported by a deep commitment to processes of involvement and co-production with the community.